


Old jobs, New problems

by Hannahfltx



Category: Portal (Video Game), Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Gen, M/M, Not Beta Read
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-06
Updated: 2015-05-06
Packaged: 2018-03-29 06:15:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3885484
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hannahfltx/pseuds/Hannahfltx
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After years of being silent a device from Carlos's past starts to make noise calling him away from Night Vale to his old job, where he has to keep an old program he created from destroying the outside world.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Old jobs, New problems

**Author's Note:**

> General don't own thing, takes place after current Night Vale cannon. Enjoy!

Cecil was sitting next to Carlos as he fiddled with a box, a science box he assumed, when a beeping started from the back of the room. Carlos looked towards the box that was beeping and stood, Cecil watching from the chair confused. Carlos opened the box and his face fell as he noticed what the device was, a device from his past.

"What is that?" Cecil asked.

"A warning device, means that a this old program I worked on before coming to Night vale has reactivated." Carlos said looking at the device, tapping it. "Cecil if I can't can't figure this out here, I might need to go to the old labs we set the program is set up in, like two weeks tops." Carlos said to Cecil.

"That's fine, it's been years since the desert other world, I can survive a week or two, but you need to get an exit pass from the sheriffs secret police" Cecil said, standing to hug Carlos from behind.

"You're right, I need to do that, give me a second." Carlos moved over to the front door of their house and opened the door, turned to the bush, and told the officer hiding in said bush that he would need an exit pass, when asked why he simply said "science". The officer nodded and put in a call paused then gave Carlos a thumbs up. The Secret police owed Carlos one when their sheriff was attacked by a giant hamster that Carlos shrunk back down, so the request was easily granted.

Carlos walked back in smiled at Cecil and started to pack his bag, Cecil smiled at Carlos and started to help.

 

Two hours later a knock was heard from the back door, upon opening they found a small blue orb, the exit pass, Carlos and Cecil started to make their way to old woman Josie, the angels the best way to leave Night vale and make it out alive. Giving to directions to the underground lab to Erika, the being that totally did not exist nodded. Carlos turned to Cecil and smiled, hugging and kissing him goodbye, and once they had said their goodbyes Carlos stepped into the swirling vortex the angels had set up, and smiled at Cecil one last time and then vanished. 

 

Looking around himself, Carlos watched the seemingly endless sea of grass and turned towards the metal door. He stepped forward and ran his old keycard in the scanner and the door swung open.

 

Chell has had it with everything. She was tired, confused, and pretty sure that she was the last human on earth. And if it weren't for the chance to destroy GLaDOS and get out off this hell hole she would have thrown Wheatly off a platform, just to be done with the annoying little ball. But instead she had let him help her get here, face to face with GLaDOS. Chell and Wheatly's plan to distract GLaDOS and transfer cores was stopped when GLaDOS froze, Chell stopped her rushing to push the button when she heard GLaDOS start to mumble to herself saying,

"It's not possible, he's dead, they all died, he left me, how is he here, I must, no, but, yes, I must..., I .. must, I, I, I, yes"

She froze and a sound could be heard from above, then a voice from behind and Wheatly calling out that this was not the plan what happened? Chell looked to the far side of the room to the glowing orb, then turned her attention to the ceiling, the noise getting louder. Then a hole in the panel. An elevator. Inside a man in his late thirties wearing a lab coat, looking around confused.

"GLaDOS. Report." The man said.

To Chells shock GLaDOS actually started to tell the man about her killing everyone, about her, Chell, killing her, and that she was fully capable to continue her job testing, then GLaDOS paused,

"How are you here, you... you died, they told me you died. You made me then you died."

The man shook his head, I didn't die I left, with a group of scientists to try to discover what had caused a rift in the readings. I found a town and in that town a life, it's only been a few years since I left but time works differently there, how long have I been gone?" 

"Decades, maybe longer, my, my memory of so long past has been corrupted..." GLaDOS responded.

"Well maybe it's time to let some things lie, what of her?"

"Her? That's the women who killed me, she deserves to spend the rest of her life testing for what she's done." GLaDOS said to the man who stood looking at her.

When the man turned back to GLaDOS Chell rushed to push the button and he turned to face her, confused, and then GLaDOS started to shout. Everything moved quickly than, her and the man being pushed into the elevator, GLaDOS in a potato, then falling.

 

"Carlos! Carlos!! Chell you stupid human grab him, he's not wearing long fall boots, he will die if you leave him to fall on his own." GLaDOS shouted from her place as a potato.

Chell turned to face the scientist, Carlos, and she grabbed him. They still fell for quite some time but when they did hit the bottom she was able to break the fall saving Carlos, who stood and took out a device from his coat, he looked worried.

"Well, that core you uploaded has no clue how to run the place, we need to restore GLaDOS, don't give me that look I get that she tried to kill you but at least she knows how to keep these labs from killing a large number of people and making a crater the size of Desert Bluffs, but not actually wiping out Desert Bluffs which would be something I should like to see, sort off topic, but we really need to restore things, that way I can shut her down and get you out, but we need her latent programming to keep the place stable in sleep mode. Sorry rambling, but we need to start moving and get out of here at the very least okay?"

Chell nodded, getting a smile from the man. That started walking. Walking around the area was ruined, and everything was old, save for what had recently fallen. At least the lights were still on. The two walked more, following the only path that lay open to a door that screams Keep Out and Contamination. They enter, or rather Chell portals over then connects the portal back to Carlos. Together they open the large, sealed Hatch, and walk through. Pass through a room of death and toxic water.

As they enter the buried building a voice comes on, startling the two as they had walked in silence up to this point, Carlos is startled and says to Chell,

"I know that voice that's Cave Johnson, not the Cave I knew, he was older but I know him." 

Chell expresses that he should continue talking.

"Well, I joined the institution after I got out of college, they were looking for scientists who would work for little money. Most people who took the job either loved science enough that money was not on their minds, or they wanted to do something illegal and knew that here they could. For me? I joined up because no one hired someone who was not white, so I took the jobs that would hire me, so I ended up here. I was apart of the team that made GLaDOS, she and I shared a love of science and was the only one she honestly did not try to kill. But I was given the task to investigate this town that only showed up on maps made the same year as the lunar eclipse, turned out to be the town of Night Vale, and time works differently. In fact this is my first time back here after 13 years in Night Vale, but time seems to have faster here then back home." he sighed. 

They continued walking to the next rounds of tests, which Chell solved then portaled Carlos up to the end. They worked through to the next level of buried buildings, this from the year 1971, still 4000 meters down but they are making their way up. The large room was silent until Cave started talking, and then Carlos noticed a bird, and it was eating a potato, not just any potato but the potato battery that powers GLaDOS. Carlos ran.

"GLaDOS! GLaDOS! Are you alright?" He shouted as he ran. Carlos waved the bird away, Chell behind him.

"Thank you, you always were the best human who worked here... why did you leave me, you left and none could be as great as you, so I killed them all..." GLaDOS responded.

Chell walked over and stabbed GLaDOS with her portal gun.

"Why would you, oh, my power has increased, we'll carry on." GLaDOS said in response to being stabbed. 

Carlos shook his head and walked out to look at the next bridge, "Well old girl, show me what you got." 

"Gladly", GLaDOS rising to the challenge, and with the extra power, moved the bridge up.

 

The next set of tests were done in silence as GLaDOS heard Cave and Caroline, Carlos knew GLaDOS had forgotten her early years, had forgotten Cave, that she had been Caroline, and also that Chell needed to not be distracted by useless chatter.

Once they meet back up at the end of each test GLaDOS asked Carlos what had she forgotten, who were these people in portraits, and cursed the scientists who had rid her of these memories. 

The tests were the only times Chell found silence, she was unused to being around other humans... she could use to the feeling though.

GLaDOS fell to silence around Carlos only when Cave started to talk, and then she seemed to realize that she, was Caroline. Carlos gave her time to digest this and turned to Chell,

"You've been here for a long time haven't you?"

Chell nodded.

"I would tell you about the world above but it's been years for me since I lived somewhere that made sense. But I wouldn't change my life for anything, I'm happy in Night Vale... I got married." Carlos suddenly said.

Chell looked at him in shock, he really made a life outside here.

"A bird! Kill it!" GLaDOS finally spoke up, "back to thinking." She fell silent again.

Carlos shook his head, "His name is Cecil, he fell in love the second he saw me, took me a bit longer, bout a year for me to start to feel the same."

They entered the room, heard about the moon rocks and Carlos suddenly realized that everyone who he worked with has died. He fell silent. Chell let him think in silence, she was never one for conversation anyway.

 

They started to work on the next levels of testing and moving up, Cave started to talk about lemons and AI's and that he wants Caroline to be put into a computer, and GLaDOS finally started to talk again. To get back into her body, to not take the lemons, and that she has no plan. They moved up.

They entered a side room and GLaDOS exclaimed, "Paradoxes! That's how we can stop him, paradoxes!" 

As they moved up they fell into the familiar test sites that Chell had become familiar with so very long ago, armed with the first real plan. They follow Wheatley's shouting to find a room full of cubes that had been given legs, a useless invention, and Carlos solves the test, mainly because he's feeling a bit useless in not having a portal gun to help, Wheatley returned to see the three he was sure he had killed standing very much alive. 

GLaDOS hits him with a paradox and, it fails, he is too stupid to understand a paradox is unsolvable. Wheatley then forces them to be his new test subjects, mainly Chell, Carlos and GLaDOS unable to do much, and the idiot manages to find all of the tests GLaDOS has stockpiled. They work through the tests Wheatley actually manages to surprise them and traps them in a overly complex way to kill them, Chell and Carlos, dragged along by Chell, escape and start to make their way up to Wheatley, commentary by GLaDOS. 

GLaDOS gains a realization that they can corrupt Wheatley's core and upload her as the new core, Chell plugs her in to start the plan. But during the pause Carlos's old tablet has finally caught up to the new data, on it a reading. Life... somewhere in the maze of the labs someone has survived, but only just. Carlos realizes what he must do and pulpy Chell aside.

"Some is alive, I need to save him, if I am given the opportunity to save someone I must, I am after all a scientist." Carlos pauses, "can you keep them both distracted, I get the feeling it was GLaDOS who tried to kill this man in the first place." 

Chell nods, she doesn't want anyone to be stuck here, alone, as she was before meeting Carlos. Carlos turned, pulling out his tablet, revamped with full bloodstone power and dark magics, he opens the doors to the old lab areas where he could have worked once upon a time and made his way to the relaxation vaults, planning a detour to the med bay. 

 

Chell walked into the room with Wheatley, she wishes that she had thrown him off the platform when she had the chance, she started the fight by giving herself areas to portal onto, once the neurotoxin stopped and the self destruct stopped she slowed down waiting for Carlos, she had time.

 

Carlos ran through the med bay, grabbing an emergency pack, and belted to the vaults. He had to make it there quickly, before GLaDOS regained power, she could shut off the power to the vaults, if he was honest to himself he was surprised she hadn't already. He ran, and ran, and ran, and ran. And he finally got to the vaults and started to search for the most recently active vault. After a time, he found it. 

A man lies in the vaults bed, a shot to the leg via turret if Carlos had to guess. He reached into the bag and pulled out a binding gun, used to re adhere flesh, a bit old in Night Vale terms but it would have to do. Once healed to a point where the poor man wouldn't die upon being awoken, Carlos woke the man up.

 

Doug Rattmann awoke, he awoke. He never thought he would be alive, and before him stood a dark skinned angel. Doug reached out to try to touch his angel, thoughts of hallucinations at the front of his mind, but when he felt the flesh against his hand he started to cry. Grabbing his angel by his lab coat he cried into his shoulder, he was real, someone had found him and saved his life.

 

When the man grabbed him Carlos tried not to react, when he started to cry Carlos understood, it was the same feeling he had had years ago when he and Cecil had been reunited after a year apart, people need to know that they aren't alone, and this man must have thought this for years. Carlos returned the hug and said,

"You aren't alone, my friend, you aren't alone anymore" Carlos said to the scared man, who hugged Carlos tighter.

 

Doug pulled away and looked at the ethereal man and asked "are you my angel?"

"No, I'm not 9 feet tall and named Erika, I'm a scientist Carlos." 

The name struck a chord, everyone knew the tale of the greatest scientist that Aperture had ever had, the man who uploaded Caroline to GLaDOS, this man was far more magnificent than any angel could be, and he trusted him instantly, only Carlos the scientist could be so perfect.

"So we need to move, Chell is dealing with GLaDOS and Wheatley but she might need help especially after GLaDOS takes control, I know she won't kill me but she might kill you two if she's in a mood." Carlos told the rugged man.

"Chell, you know my lady Chell, of course you do the God of science would know the Goddess of freedom." Doug said to Carlos.

The two started to run back to the computer main room, talking on the way back.

Sentient clouds, one is in charge of the PTA, his husband, an immortal who can change his appearance depending on the day, him, he had done a blood pact marriage where he and Cecil bound life energy together making him immortal as well, shadow governments, there are like three at any given time, and seeing strange and impossible things is a daily thing. Doug had never felt more sane than hearing that the world was as mad as he was. They arrived at the door to the center.

Carlos and Doug entered the room to see Chell fly back from an explosion, she looked up, at the two men, and fired a portal at the moon. Carlos grabbed Doug and stopped believing in the moon, and became unaffected by the pull coming from the portal, holding onto Doug with an inhuman strength. He watched Chell be dragged into the portal only to be grabbed by GLaDOS, newly awoken. Doug looked at Carlos, a superhuman being capable of things far beyond what even he could imagine, and looked at Chell. GLaDOS shut off the portal and turned to face the men, thankful that Chell was fine, Chell her best friend, and she knew what she had to do. 

"You crazy humans, I miss the day when mute lunatics did not try to kill me, or Rattmann didn't climb through my veins, but you Carlos, how I will always want you here, but your place is not here. Not anymore. Go. All of you, just, leave. I won't allow my labs to blow up, nor try to take control of the world. I have my robots, I have my tests. You can all go." She called down the elevator. 

Getting into the elevator Chell faced Doug and pointed at him with a tilted head, he told her of him watching her from the walls, coming back to see her safely in the cryochamber, writing out clues to guide her, and painting her image. She smiled at him and as they stepped out of the metal door, the companion cube, which Doug grabbed and hugged to his chest, she spoke for the first time,

"I'm glad you helped lead my way, without you, I wouldn't be here, thank you. Both of you." 

Carlos smiled but knew he had spent enough time away from home, he needed to return to Night Vale, he told the two as such.

"Where are we supposed to go?" Doug asked.

"Anywhere, it's a wide world. Find your own adventure, it's about time you had a say in your own lives" Carlos said, picking up the case he had left by the door. 

Removing the pass from under his shirt he dropped it on the ground, a vortex consumed him and in a flash he found himself home. He opened the door and moved into the house, setting down his case, and hugging Cecil, this was his life. And Carlos was happy.

 

Chell and Doug watched the portal close and chose a direction and just started to walk, they had a future to explore, together.


End file.
